Monday, November 2, 2009

W SHOE 3LEI?


Today at work I had a very important meeting with a potential Indian client. I wanted to make sure that everything was ready before the meeting. Documents were prepared, suit was ironed, shoes were shined. I even checked on wikimapia the exact location of the company I’m visiting because I wanted to reach there on time and didn’t want any surprises on my way.


But even with all the preparations, a surprise was waiting for me right at the entrance of the company.


It came in a shape of a poster with the following written on it “Please keep the area clean, no shoes are allowed”.

The first thing that came to my mind before anything else was to try to remember which socks I wore today? Luckily I had worn a new pair of socks that still doesn’t present any “holes” symptoms.
Then, after the message really got me, it took me a while standing at the entrance of the company trying to figure out whether I really should take off my shoes, or entering the building and pretend that I didn’t notice the poster.

After spending some time, standing like a fool trying to come up with a decision, I found myself taking off my shoes, and proceeding to the meeting. At the end, I am the one who is in need of this client’s business, so I had to go by his rules, at least in his own premises. But I do admit that I felt the irony remembering that I shined my shoes.

When I first entered the office and saw all the people barefoot, I felt a little bit weird, like someone going to a nudist beach for the first time. But then, when the meeting was in progress, I realized how comfortable it was working like this. I should try implementing this rule in our office… Or not, it is comfortable, but I m not sure how much we are ready for it.

Anyways, the day passed and everything went ok, and the meeting went smoothly, but this made me think of how far we are willing to go to please our customers and what will be considered as a limit?

2 comments: